


Haunted

by Forgotten_Peggy



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, ghost - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-13
Updated: 2017-02-13
Packaged: 2018-09-22 10:41:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9604436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Forgotten_Peggy/pseuds/Forgotten_Peggy
Summary: When Amy was first transferred to the Nine-Nine, no one would tell her what happened. It wouldn't take her long to find out, though, and after a few days, there was no way she could ever forget.





	

When Amy was first transferred to the Nine-Nine, no one would tell her what happened. One of the first things she noticed when she first left the elevator and entered the bullpen was the incredibly messy desk that lay just a little to her right. The desk was covered in toys and smelled of food that had been left there for too long, and immediately drew her curiosity, while also grossing her out a lot. The Sargent had shown her desk that day, just across from the childish one she had noticed just moments earlier. She figured that the mystery person whose desk that was must have been sick or away because she didn't see them on her first day.

Amy did meet her other fellow detectives though, Hitchcock and Scully, who didn't seem to ever do anything apart from eat, Boyle, who always seemed to be cooking something new at his desk but seemed to still work hard, and Rosa. She didn't know anything about Rosa, just that she seemed pretty scary. The only other person she knew the name of was Gina, the civilian administrator, who might have been dating Rosa, but she didn't really know. She did know to steer mostly clear of them though, just in case they stabbed her. She couldn't help but notice though, the sombre mood that surrounded the precinct. At her last precinct, there had been quite a bit of gossip and general chatter around, but here it seemed to be just work. Not that she didn't mind that, of course.

On her second day, when the mysterious person who occupied the desk still hadn't shown up by her lunch break, she decided to ask her Sargent who exactly they were.

"Excuse me, Sargent, can I please ask you a question?" She asked, cornering him in the break room.

“I told you to call me Terry, and sure," He replied. "But go ahead, Santiago, what is it?"

"Whose desk is that? The one across from mine? I haven't seen them around yet,"

Terry seemed to freeze, unsure of what to say. "Uhh, don't worry about it,"

Okay then. Amy didn't really know how to respond to that, so she just nodded slightly and returned to her desk to continue doing paperwork. Even while checking reports, she couldn't help but glance up every so often and look at the desk in front of her. If only she knew why they weren't there. Were they in hospital? Were they on holidays? If so, why wouldn't Terry tell her?

On her third day, she built up the courage to approach Charles and Rosa while they were discussing a case together. She was growing more curious by the day about her mystery coworker who she still had not seen. "Hey, Rosa, Charles," she greeted. "I was just wondering-" she paused, seeing Terry's eyes grow wide as he listened to their conversation, before he started violently shaking his head at her. "-if one of you could help me with this case?" She finished, and watched behind Charles' shoulder as Terry breathed a sigh of relief. Why didn't anyone want to talk about this?

"Sure, just don't be so weird about it next time," Rosa said, and Amy forced a small smile.

* * *

 

She found out three hours later. Amy was just leaving some paperwork on Captain Holt's desk for him to sign when her curiosity got the better of her. She quickly shut the office door and turned back to the captain.

"Is everything alright, Detective Santiago?"

"Umm, yes, Captain,” she took a deep breath, not wanting to say anything that could make the captain hate her. “I was just wondering... What happened to the person who used to sit at the desk across from mine? No one will talk about them,"

Holt seemed to freeze just like Terry had, but told her anyway. "His name was Jake Peralta," Holt started, already with more emotion in his voice than Amy had heard before. "He was a great detective, one of the best, but he was... He was killed in a gunfight against two perps, just three weeks ago. The squad still haven't really recovered, so I apologise for them,"

Oh. That wasn't really what she was expecting. Now that she thought about it, she really should have seen it coming. Now she understood why Terry didn't want her to ask Rosa and Boyle about it, they must have all been close.

"Oh," Amy said slowly. "I'm sorry for your loss,"

"Thank you, Santiago, I appreciate it,"

* * *

When she got home that night, Amy grabbed her laptop and googled the name her captain had told her earlier. Sure enough, the first thing that came up was a news article with the title, "Brooklyn Detective Killed in Gunfight".

The poor precinct. No wonder they hadn't been overly friendly with her, she was his replacement.

* * *

Amy didn't really think about the events of that day for the next week and a half, she was buried with work, especially since no one argued when she offered to take a homicide case that came up. She figured her co-workers could use a break from that particular subject.

She was taking a breather in the evidence lockup when she spotted something move out of the corner of her eye. Shaking her head, she convinced herself that she must be hallucinating. No one was in the evidence room when she walked in, and certainly no one had come in since.

Suddenly, a figure appeared from behind one of the shelves. He wore a plaid flannel shirt with a leather jacket and jeans, and a childish grin. "So, I don't believe we've met yet," the man said. Amy froze. Not only was his action of emerging from the shadows creepy enough, but he looked oddly familiar, yet she couldn't figure out where she'd seen his face before. When she didn't reply, he spoke instead."Okay, I'll go first, my name's Jake Peralta, what's yours?"

She squeezed her eyes shut. Surely she must be hallucinating, Jake Peralta was dead. There was no possible way he could be standing in front of her.

"Hello? Earth to Amy. Santiago, right?" He asked. "Yeah, I already knew your name, I was just giving you a chance to tell me yourself. I did my research, well not really, I just hear everything," he wiggled his fingers in front of her face, as if he was trying to be spooky. It was the kind of gesture that she would normally not be creeped out by at all, if the man doing it hadn't died a month prior.

“Ha, ha, very funny,” she said sarcastically. “Who are you? One of the beat cops?”

“No, I’m actually Jake Peralta, seriously, don’t you remember this beautiful face?” His tone of voice may have been incredibly annoying, but there was no way Amy could deny that he looked exactly like the picture of Jake Peralta in the news article she had read the night she found out he’d died.

"W-what? How? Holt told me-" Amy started, but was cut off.

"That I'm dead. Yeah. Well, technically I am, but," he stretched out the last word and she couldn't help but roll her eyes. "I got to choose who I get to haunt, so I guess I'm a ghost? I'm not really sure, I'm still new to this whole thing,"

"I really haven't gotten enough sleep," Amy mumbled to herself. "There is no way this is actually happening,"

"Yeah, well it is, so-"

"Even if this was real, which I'm still not completely convinced of, why on earth would you choose me to haunt? I didn't even know you!" Amy exclaimed, thoroughly confused by this whole encounter.

"Shh, keep your voice down, people are going to think you're crazy!" Jake whisper-yelled. "You're the only one who can see or hear me, because I chose you," he expanded. "Which brings me to answer your question. I was going to choose Gina since we've been best friends for forever, but then I figured she would just post something on the internet about me then get sent to some mental asylum, so I decided against that. I would've chosen Rosa just so I could find out more about her life, but I thought she'd find some way to somehow kill me again. Boyle was definitely out, even though he was one of my best friends, because he would've just cried a lot, and that's just a bummer,"

"Whoa," was Amy's only coherent thought at Jake's speech of sorts.

"Shh, I'm not done," he said, before continuing. "So then, I was like 'Well who am I going to haunt?' Then you showed up, and you were kinda cute, but then I saw how organised and stuff you are, and figured you wouldn't tell anyone, because you're the type of person who would do anything to make sure no one thinks you're crazy. Plus, I thought you'd be fun to annoy," he finished.

“So you chose to haunt me, and be stuck with me presumably until I die, because you thought I'd be fun to annoy?" Somehow Amy was learning a lot about Jake through this encounter.

"Yeah, if you get too annoying I can always just kill you, so I get to go to the actual afterlife and you're stuck haunting someone else," Jake said.

"Okay then," she said, still in a state of disbelief. "What is my life?" She asked herself under her breath.

"Well, better get back to work, or people are going to think you're crazy, what an impression to make in your second week," Jake laughed.

Amy turned to go, and Jake followed. "Ooh, also, the neighbour killed him," he added.

"What?"

"Your case. They're the only one who could have accessed the backyard, check their DNA,"

Even as a ghost, he was still apparently a great detective.

* * *

"Damn, your desk is so neat," Jake said, following Amy back into the bullpen. "Ooh, and mine looks exactly the same as it did when I was alive," he says, sitting down in his old chair. Amy rolled her eyes, resisting the urge to say something to him out loud, and looked over the homicide case file. Seeing that Jake was right and it had to be the neighbour, she filed a search warrant and updated the file. "God, I missed this place," Jake said. "But everyone seems so sad now, it kinda sucks," Amy shrugged and kept working, she knew she couldn't exactly talk to him while other people were around.

He wandered around the bullpen, mostly watching Boyle, Gina and Rosa, until Amy got up to leave. Jake quickly followed her into the elevator, but she didn't risk speaking to him until they were alone outside.

"You know how you said it sucks that everyone in there's all sad?" Amy asked him, and Jake nodded. "Yeah, well try being your replacement, no one will talk to me unless 100% necessary for a case,"

"Then we need to get them to like you!" Jake exclaimed.

"And how am I supposed to do that? They're sad over the fact that you died, I can't exactly make them stop mourning,"

"Hmm, good point, but they've got to get over me at some point, I hate seeing them all this sad. Even Rosa looks sad!" Amy guessed she didn't show much emotion before, much like Holt now.

"So what do you propose I do?" She asked as they got into her car.

“Just, offer to pay for their drinks at Shaw's or something. That's this bar that we used to hang out at all the time,"

"Fine, but if this doesn't work I'm making you pay me back for everyone's drinks," Amy said, stills skeptical of Jake's idea.

"Can't. I'm a ghost, remember?"

* * *

A few hours after they got back to Amy's house, she was just about to get into bed, when she saw Jake standing at her doorway.

"Do you really have to watch me sleep? That's getting a bit creepy,"

"Nah, you're just cute when you get all defensive like that," Amy was glad her lights were off, so no one could see her blush at his comment. He was a ghost, for God’s sake, he should not be making her feel anything, except maybe annoyance.

"I would appreciate it if you'd leave, go sleep or watch a movie or something," Amy said, desperate to get out of this situation.

"Fine. Night, Amy,"

"Goodnight, Jake,"

This could not possibly end well.

* * *

 

"Hey guys, want to go for drinks tonight at Shaw's?" Amy finally built up the courage to ask her co-workers the next afternoon.

"Any particular reason?" Rosa asked.

“It's a Friday night? I just closed that homicide case?" She didn't really know what to say. She couldn't exactly say 'Your dead co-worker told me to suggest it'.

"I don't know..." Boyle trailed off.

"Wait who even are you?" Gina asked unhelpfully. _Great._

"Come on guys, she means well. Plus I think it'd be good for us all to get our minds off things for a bit," Terry pitched in. Amy thanked God someone was helping her. She just wanted her co-workers to like her and stop treating her like an outsider, even though she understood how that may be hard for them.

"I'll pay?" She offered.

"Fine, I'll go," said Boyle. She couldn't help but celebrate a little inside.

"I can't say no to free drinks," Gina said.

Rosa rolled her eyes but agreed to going (Amy couldn't tell if it was because she was paying or because Gina was going), and soon Hitchcock, Scully and Holt all agreed to going as well. Terry said he would go provided he leave early so he could still say goodnight to his daughters.

Amy rolled her eyes at Jake jumping around near Holt's office behind Gina but smiled inside at the chance to hopefully get closer to her new co-workers and maybe become friends with them.

* * *

Amy spent the first hour at Shaw’s talking to Terry and Holt, before they both left to return home. She talked to Charles for a few minutes, before he left to talk to someone else - some girl who apparently liked some weird food Amy didn't bother asking about. Now she was drinking alone. Well, Jake sitting to her left, but she couldn’t exactly talk to him in public.

“Hey, you’re Amy!” Gina exclaimed, clearly already a few drinks in. She slid into the bar stool on Amy’s right, and Rosa reluctantly followed her. Amy could tell that Rosa was spending half of her time just making sure Gina didn’t say anything stupid or incredibly offensive.

“Yes, I am,” Amy confirmed, slightly amused.

“So, important questions first, are you gay?” Asked Gina. Amy’s eyes widened, taken aback. That was definitely not what she was expecting to be asked. Behind Gina, Amy saw Rosa shake her head in disbelief before ordering two more shots. “Ooh, wait, lemme guess,” Gina said, thinking. She looked back at Amy’s shocked expression and sighed dramatically. “Ugh, you’re straight, aren’t you? Dammit,” In her peripheral, Amy saw Jake laughing hysterically at his childhood friend.

“W-what? No,” Amy didn’t know why she got so defensive. “I’m bi, actually,” She hadn’t really planned on coming out to her colleagues, she didn’t really see the necessity, yet here she was.

“Yay! I am too! So is Rosa!” Exclaimed Gina. Rosa looked back over at them at the mention of her name.

“Okay, Gina, how about you go talk to Boyle for a bit,” she suggested. Gina huffed and walked away, and Rosa slid into the now vacant bar stool next to Amy.

“Sorry about her,” Rosa offered. “She gets really crazy after about four drinks, and she’ll never let me stop her drinking. We’ve been dating for six months and I still haven’t figured out how to control her,” she laughed drily. So they _were_ dating. Amy stored that piece of information in her brain for later use.

“It’s fine, really,” said Amy.

“You seem cool,” Rosa started. “I just don’t get why you act so weird all the time, like you’re always looking for peoples’ approval,”

“Well, it’s hard being the new person, and I feel like everyone hates me because I’m… the replacement,” Amy said, not daring to say Jake’s name.

“Don’t worry, it’s not personal, we’re just not used to having you around, but everyone will warm up to you soon,” said Rosa. “I know it doesn’t really help, but they were kind of hesitant to talk to me and let me in when I first started at the Nine-Nine a few years ago, but I guess in your situation it’s kind of different because the guy I replaced was like a hundred and moved to some desk job across the city,”

“Yeah, I just want to do my job well and be friends with you guys,” Amy confessed.

“Well, we might not be friends yet, but maybe soon,” Rosa said, getting up. “Oh, and congrats on that homicide case, haven’t seen anyone solve a big case that quickly since Jake died,” And with that, she left, walking over to talk to Charles and Gina.

Amy left the bar soon after that, feeling satisfied with the outcome of being slightly closer to becoming friends with her co-workers. Jake, on the other hand, looked grumpy as he got into Amy's car, which confused her considering this whole night was his idea.

"Everything okay there?" Amy asked once they were on the road.

"No," Jake replied sulkily.

"Any particular reason?"

"I just can't believe Gina and Rosa never told me they were dating," he said. That was the reason he was so grumpy? Wow.

"I'm sure they had a good reason," Amy did her best to console him.

"They were two of my best friends, I wonder when they started telling people. It was obviously less than a month ago," said Jake. The two sat in silence for a few moments. "I need to get revenge on them!" He exclaimed.

"No, you really don't," said Amy.

"Yeah, but they can't blame me or do anything to get back at me so why not?" Amy rolled her eyes.

Jake stayed silent for the rest of the car ride and until Amy got into bed, but she could see him thinking and plotting against Rosa and Gina. Oh well, Amy thought, at least it wasn't aimed at her.

* * *

The next morning, in Amy's car, Jake spoke for the first time in almost twelve hours.

"We should bet on when they started telling people," he said.

"I really don't think that's a great idea," Amy said. "Plus, how would we even find out?"

"You can ask them!" Jake said excitedly. "Please, come on, just $20,"

"How will you even pay me back?" She asked, forever skeptical.

"I have my ways," he said, wiggling his eyebrows. He huffed when he saw her eyebrows-raised expression. "Come on, please," he begged, drawing out the last word.

"Fine," Amy gave in, deciding that it really couldn't cause any harm.

"Yay! I'll bet you were the first person they told, apart from the squad," Jake said.

"Hmm, I'll say they started telling people just after you died," Amy decided, before realizing something. "Jake, how will you even use $20? You can't exactly buy anything,"

"Yeah, but you can use that money to buy me stuff since I can't do it myself,  and I don't want anyone to see me stealing anything because they'd probably have a heart attack and die," he said.

"Wow, how thoughtful of you,”

“I know,” Jake agreed, and Amy couldn’t tell if he had sensed the sarcasm in her voice.

“So, what are you actually going to do to Rosa and Gina?” Amy asked.

“I’m not sure of everything yet, but I’m definitely going to move everything on Rosa’s desk just a few inches to the left and see if she notices, then steal Gina’s phone and tweet some stuff,” said Jake, grinning evilly.

“You know they’d both kill you,” Amy said. “Oh wait,” she realized.

“Yup! They won’t find out, because they can’t blame me, because I’m dead, woo!” He pumped his fist. They both paused for a second. “Probably should’ve have been so excited about that,” Jake commented.

“Nope,”

* * *

“So, Rosa, when did you and Gina start telling people you were dating?” Amy asked her co-worker as they sat in the break room eating lunch. Jake had asked her to keep Rosa distracted while he moved everything on her desk, and Amy had begrudgingly agreed. She figured that now was as good of a time as any to see who would win her and Jake’s bet.

She was drawn out of her thoughts by Rosa’s hard expression. Right, she hated all personal talk. “Umm, I just mean, whenever I date a new girl they always want me to wait ages before we tell anyone, then by then we’ve already broken up, I was just wondering if that was all people who were like that or just the ones I decided to date,” Amy started rambling. It wasn't 100% false, but it definitely wasn't the reason she was asking.

“This is what I was talking about before Amy, you need to chill,” Rosa started, and Amy breathed a sigh of relief. In her peripheral, Amy saw Jake walk into the room and give her a thumbs up while she struggled to not roll her eyes. “Gina and I actually only started telling people pretty recently, we accidentally kissed in public at Jake’s funeral then that was that,” she said.

“Oh, cool,” Amy replied, trying to retain a calm façade while inside she was celebrating. She didn’t know why, but she prided herself in this win a lot more than she should, especially after she saw Jake yell “Ugh!” and slam his fist on the table in annoyance.

* * *

Amy didn’t see Jake or talk to Rosa for the rest of the day, too busy buried in paperwork. At the end of the day, she huffed a sigh of relief as she flopped down into the driver’s seat of her car, finally letting her shoulders relax. “Ugh,” she let out a long moan, tired from the long day.

“So,” Jake started, and Amy sighed in annoyance.

“Please, not now, I’ve had such a long day,” she groaned. “I’m too tired to deal with you being annoying,”

“But, you won the bet!” He whined. “Now I owe you $20,”

“Why are you even so happy about that?” Amy questioned.

“Well it’s not like I could’ve used it,” he replied, and she shrugged. “So now, we are going to go get you that money,”

“Are you kidding me? How?” Asked Amy, still annoyed at him for being so perky when she was so tired.

“You’ll see,” he said mysteriously. “Now, go to this address," he recited a street name and number.

"Ugh, can't we just do this tomorrow?" Amy complained.

"Nope, at least I highly recommend doing this late at night so no one sees you breaking into a dead guy's apartment," Jake chuckles a little to himself.

"We're doing what?" Exclaimed Amy.

"Seriously, how did you think I would pay you back?" Amy shrugged, realising that she really hadn't thought about how he would pay her back.

"Fine," she huffed. Fifteen minutes of comfortable silence later, she pulled over in front of an apartment building that Jake confirmed was his.

"Okay, just go up to the third floor, you're not going to look like a criminal until we actually get to my door," Jake said, as if that was supposed to help calm her racing heart. She slowly climbed the stairs, and he followed her, until they reached the right floor. "Mine's 3B, now, the spare key is under the left side the door,"

"I'm not squatting there for three minutes while I find your stupid key," she said. "You do it, it's not like people can see you,"

“Fine,” said Jake, squatting down and reaching under the door for his key. He found it, standing up before holding it up triumphantly. Amy quickly took it from his grasp, paranoid that someone would come into the hall and see a key floating in the air.

Thanking God she did that straight away, Amy froze as the door to the apartment next to Jake’s opened, and a middle aged woman entered the corridor. “I haven’t seen you around before, what are you doing here? I thought Jake died,” she said, clearly skeptical of the situation. Jake stood wide-eyed and unable to do anything, watching to see what Amy would say.

“Yeah, he did,” Amy started. “I just came to get some things of mine I left at his apartment,” she continued, making her voice choke up a little for effect. The lady clearly didn’t believe her, so she added, “I was his girlfriend,”

The woman’s expression softened. “I’m so sorry for your loss,” she said sympathetically, before walking down the hallway and stepping into the elevator.

“Phew, that was a close call,” Amy said as soon as the woman was out of earshot. When Jake didn’t reply, she looked over from where she was now fiddling with the doorknob to see him still standing there, eyes wide and staring into the distance. “Jake!” She whisper-yelled, snapping her fingers in his face. He blinked suddenly, and looked at her.

“I can't believe you said you were my girlfriend, I'm so far out of your league, look at me, I'm a stud!" He exclaimed. "But don't get me wrong, I am flattered to know that you would want to date me if I was still alive,"

"I only said that so she wouldn't call the cops," Amy said.

"Whatever you say, now let’s get inside before anyone else sees us, well, you,” Jake said, laughing a little.

Upon entering Jake’s apartment, Amy found herself surprisingly unsurprised. There were multiple massage chairs around, six different Die Hard posters (the only movie she had seen him watch), and just generally a lot of mess. “Wow,” she said. “You lived like this?”

“Are you judging me?” Jake asked as he rummaged through a drawer in the kitchen.

“Yes, I am. Did you never clean up after yourself?” Asked Amy.

“Nope, when you’re on the force, you know you’re probably going to die young, so I figured, why waste my life cleaning stuff?"

“Fair point, but this is still disgusting,” Amy said, pivoting to continue to look around her.

“A-ha!” Jake exclaimed triumphantly from the other room. “Found it!” He said, returning to where Amy stood, a $20 bill in hand. “They took my wallet and stuff when I died, but I always kept cash around, because I’m organized,”

“Really?”

“Nope, I just lost money a lot so I figured it had to be somewhere around here,” he confessed.

“Sounds about right,”

* * *

“I have called you all here today for one very important reason,” Gina said, early the next morning, as she shoved Amy out from behind the podium stand.

“This is a police briefing, and I wasn’t done,” Amy said, offended.

“Well now it’s over, we have a much more important matter to attend to,” said Gina. Amy simply rolled her eyes and sat down next to Rosa.

“Yesterday, at exactly 1:52pm, someone took my phone, tweeted on my account, and then returned my phone. I know the tweet was sent from my phone because I had Savant track the location of where the tweet was posted from, and it was in this building,” she said. Amy froze, knowing exactly who did this, her thoughts confirmed when she glanced at the doorway of the briefing room and saw Jake standing there, smirking.

“How do you know you just don’t remember tweeting it?” Terry asked.

“What even did it say?” Asked Boyle.

“One, I know I didn’t tweet it for a fact because it was something I would never say nor do, which brings me to answer Boyle’s question. The tweet was simple, but horrible. It was a reply to the one and only Queen of America, Beyoncé Knowles. It said simply, ‘lol’. As you all know, I would never say that, and the fact that it was in reply to Royalty was simply blasphemous,”

“What was the point of this announcement?” Amy asked, pretending she had no clue who did this.

“If I find out who did this terrible deed, and I will, I would just like them to know that I will find them, and I will kill them,” Gina hesitated for a second, before correcting herself. “I will watch, while Rosa kills you for me,” Amy’s eyebrows raised in disbelief as Rosa rolled her eyes fondly at her girlfriend. “Okay, dismissed,”

“I wasn’t done-”Amy started to protest.

“I said dismissed,” Gina repeated over her.

* * *

“Why are you all smiley?” Jake asked annoyingly as Amy looked at her phone. She had just gotten home from yet another long day of work, which was only made longer by Gina accusing everyone of being behind the twitter incident every four seconds.

“What do you mean? Leave me alone,” Amy said, getting defensive for no particular reason except her tiredness.

“Come on, you’re smiling at your phone, who’s texting you? Your boyfriend?” He asked in a sing-song voice that made Amy want to slap him.

“I don’t have a boyfriend,” said Amy. “Fine, I was texting this guy called Teddy, we went out a few times a while ago but then he moved away, and now he’s back, so we’re going to catch up again, that’s all,”

“Ooohh, Amy has a crush,” Jake dragged out the last word as Amy rolled her eyes.

“Shut up, I don’t even know if I still like him, it’s… it’s been a while,” she said.

“Ooh, that’s not good,”

“Just leave me alone, I’m going out with him tomorrow night, I guess I’ll see then,” Amy told Jake, comforting herself at the same time.

“Whatever you say, Santiago,” Jake turned and walked out, leaving Amy alone in her bedroom. Santiago. He had called her by her last name, a name Rosa and the other detectives at the 99 used frequently, but she had never heard Jake call her that before. Somehow it felt different, almost like a pet name. Amy knew that was stupid, but the thought of it still brought a small smile to her face.

She shook her head, the smile falling from her face. She was acting like a schoolgirl with a crush on a boy she could never get. Except, in those cases, the boy was usually a jock or the quarterback, someone simply out of her league. But this was different. He wasn’t just out of her league, he was a ghost.

Amy knew what she needed to do, she had to go to the date with Teddy and see if they could rekindle whatever they’d had that one time over a year ago. She knew she had to distract herself, and hopefully find something good in the process.

* * *

"Ooh! Everyone, Amy has a date tonight!" Gina announced just as Amy was about to leave work the next day. For a second she wondered how Gina knew, before realising that not only was she pretty sure Gina knew everything, but she had gotten changed into a nice dress before she left work so she could go straight out. Amy paused and turned around, guessing she wouldn't be able to leave for a few more minutes. She was right.

"Nice, Santiago, guy or girl?" Rosa asked.

"What's their name? Have you shampooed their hair yet? You know-" Boyle was cut off by a chorus of groans.

"Okay, let's get this over with," Amy muttered to herself, before speaking to her colleagues. "His name is Teddy, we used to go out but we haven't talked in a while because he went away. And no, Boyle, no one apart from you likes to shampoo anyone's hair other than their own," she finished. "Any more questions?"

"Yeah, does he know who you are? You're not cat fishing him right?" Asked Gina.

"No, why?"

"Hmm interesting, no reason, I just can't believe someone actually wants to out with you," Gina commented. Two weeks ago, Amy would have been offended by Gina's comment, but she'd learned to just ignore it. "He's probably really boring," Gina added. Well, Amy couldn't really argue with that, he was a great guy and all, but most of what he talked about was pilsners or just work stuff. Still, he made her happy, and he was very sensible and responsible, so she resigned herself to going out with him anyway.

Out of the corner of her eye, Amy saw Rosa elbow Gina gently, before saying something that sounded suspiciously like, "Be nice," Amy smiled a little to herself, she was getting closer with her co-workers every day, and soon they'd be actual friends.

"Well, don't want to keep this Teddy guy waiting, so have fun, Santiago, bye," Rosa said. Amy waved a little before turning and walking into the elevator.

Jake followed her, and within a few seconds they were alone in the metal box. "You better not follow me tonight, go do something, I don't care what, but do not mess this date up for me," Amy threatened.

"Fine, Santiago, whatever you say,"

* * *

 The second she returned to her apartment that night, she crashed onto her couch, sighing in relief when she realised that Jake was nowhere to be seen. Her date had been okay by any standards, Amy knew Teddy was a nice enough guy, but for reasons she hated, she couldn’t keep her mind focused on him or their date all night at all.

It wasn’t even his fault. Amy usually found it easy to focus on her dates and be interested in their lives and what they had to say, even if those dates usually didn’t end well. But for some reason, tonight, all Amy could think of was what joke Jake would make in that circumstance, and what he would say about Teddy. She couldn’t get him off her mind.

Of course, she wasn’t stupid, she knew why she kept thinking about him. Despite this, she did think it stupid that she felt the way she did. He was dead, for Heaven’s sake. But of course, he would still be there, haunting her, no matter what she did, until the day she died, or he chose to haunt someone else, but considering what he’d told her the first time they’d met, he didn’t have many other choices as to who to haunt.

She didn’t know what to do, so when Teddy texted her later that night, asking if she wanted to go out again, she didn’t reply.

Jake may not have crashed her date that night, but she was pretty sure he still ruined it, even if it was for reasons completely unknown to Teddy, and even Jake himself.

* * *

Amy looked down as she walked into work the next day, not wanting anyone, especially Gina, to somehow read her mind or do something along those lines. Still, Gina noticed.

“Ooh, Ames, what’s up? Date go badly?” Gina asked.

“I’d really rather not talk about it,” Despite her best efforts, Amy blushed a little as she thought of Jake, who she still hadn’t seen since the previous day. She guessed he had followed Rosa home or something. Seeing Gina’s raised eyebrows, Amy silently thanked God that Rosa and Boyle were out on an early stakeout, and Terry and the Captain couldn’t care less about her personal life.

“God, now you have a crush? Come on, if it’s that guy you went out with last night, why didn’t you just bone?” Gina asked.

“I don’t ‘bone’ until the third date,” Amy said, using air quotes to quote Gina. “And please, leave me alone?”

“Boring,” coughed Gina, but thankfully she dropped the subject.

Amy told herself she would talk to Jake that night, provided he actually came back to hers again. She knew she shouldn’t, but she was starting to miss his mildly annoying presence.

* * *

 “Hey, Santiago, long time no see, how was the date?” Amy bit back a smile at the sight of Jake sitting on her couch when she returned to her apartment that evening.

“The date was fine,” Amy replied. “Where have you been?”

“You asked me to give you space for your date,” he said, like it was obvious. “So I followed Rosa home, her apartment is surprisingly not the bat cave,”

“I just thought you’d be back here when I got home last night, kind of a relief when you weren’t though,” laughed Amy.

“Why? Oh my gosh you came back here to bone, I knew there was a reason I didn’t come back here,” Jake said.

“No, I just needed some space, I don’t have sex until the third date, at least,” Amy clarified for the second time that day.

“Boring,” Jake commented. There were times she could definitely tell that he grew up with Gina.

“Why does everyone keep saying that?” She asked, as Jake looked at her confusedly. “Anyway, I wanted to talk to you Jake,” Amy confessed. She knew she had to get her feelings off her chest, at least tell someone, or she would probably explode. She didn’t particularly want to tell Jake as he was the one who was involved most in this, but no one else knew that she even had the ghost of the detective she replaced haunting her.

“Oh no, that doesn’t sound good, what did I do?” He asked. She was slightly confused as to why he immediately thought he did something wrong, but pushed that thought aside.

“No, it’s nothing you did,” _Except making me have a crush on you_ , Amy added mentally. “It’s just… Look, Jake, I... As much as it kills me to say this, I like you,” she paused to gauge his reaction. So far, just a slack jaw and raised eyebrows, so she added, “More than I should,”

“Umm,” was his only response.

“But I know that nothing could ever happen because you’re…” she couldn’t bring herself to say the word.

“A ghost?” Jake offered.

“Yeah,” she paused for a second. “Look, I know you probably have nothing to say, I mean this was pretty random, so yeah,”

“Look, if I could, I’d like you back, but, yeah,” Jake hesitated, but they both know what he meant. “Do you want me to choose someone else to haunt?” He asked, concerned.

“No,” Amy said, probably too quickly. “I mean, despite all this, you’re a great friend, and I mean, my arrest numbers have gone way up since you started helping me, so, I’d like you to stay,” she confessed. “But obviously, if you don’t want to you don’t have to, I mean, do whatever you want, but-”

“Sure, I’d love to stay,” Jake smiled, cut off her rambling. Amy smiled a little in response. Maybe she didn’t completely mess this up.

She knew what she had to do. Now this was off her chest, she would call Teddy and go out again, and maybe be happy with him. Either way, she knew she always had Jake and her friends at the 99th precinct. She was finally content.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the longest fic I've written in a long time, and it took me almost a week to write, also I have no idea how or why I came up with this concept, but I hope you all like it :)


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